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Certificate

As explained in Google Anthos in Action

A certificate is a digitally signed credential that binds an identity to a public key or other authenticated information.

A certificate is a credential that certifies ownership of a public key by a named subject. A trusted certificate authority issues certificates so others can rely on assertions made with the corresponding private key. section 4.3.3

In an Istio service mesh, certificates support:

  • Workload identity, by securely provisioning certificates to every workload. section 4.3.3
  • Trust delegation, through a root certificate, a subordinate delegate CA, or an administrator-specified CA. section 4.3.3
  • Zero-trust security, alongside peer authentication and authorization against unknown service communication and network attacks. section 4.3.3

Istio CA configurations

By default, Istio generates a self-signed root certificate and key, then uses them to sign certificates for microservices. Enterprise deployments commonly provide an existing root certificate or delegated CA signing certificate and key. section 4.3.3

How Google Anthos in Action covers it

How deep it goes
Defines certificate ownership and trust, then explains root, delegated, and configurable CA deployment options.
Examples
Uses Istio’s self-signed default root and enterprise configurations with existing root or delegated CA certificates.
What it assumes
Assumes basic cryptography and network-security context while defining certificate authorities and public-key ownership.
What you can do after
Operate/configure Istio certificate authorities to provision identities for workloads and integrate organizational trust.
How it connects
Connects certificates with certificate authorities, public and private keys, workload identity, peer authentication, and authorization.

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